The return of gingerbread.

It has become a new family tradition to check out the amazing gingerbread displays at the Mormon Trail Center. We ventured out to look for the first time last year, and we headed back last Friday evening to see this year's entrants. Once again, the displays were AMAZING!

The boys played a game again this year, finding letters next to certain built items among the gingerbread. Once all the letters were found, they unscrambled them to guess the special words: Winter Wonderland! A nice man gave them each a sticker for figuring out the game, and we all had a good time.

I wasn't going to take pictures this year, but the displays are just TOO amazing not to share! Enjoy!











I'll be nice and put the rest of the pictures behind a cut. There are a TON of them, but they are so very worth the look - I promise! :-)

( 84 pics. )

A.J.'s award.

I remember posting about Jack's award back in another post, but I hadn't yet mentioned that, the following week, A.J. also won the Falcon Gram Award for his classroom.

And Jack was just as excited for him as he had been when Jack won the award! Yay!


A.J.'s Falcon Gram Award.

( One more. )

And it comes to an end.

My 'Twelve Days of Christmas' has come to an end. Each was amazing, and I am so blessed.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... a 22oz. Yankee Candle® jar, in 'Home Sweet Home' scent.
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... The Departed on DVD.
On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Blood Diamond on DVD (see a Leo trend? *squee*)
On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... the Snakes on a Plane DVD and a Hannah Montana CD (guilty secret? I love her and that show!)
And on the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... my wedding ring.

I know that last one needs some explanation, I do. (I promise I'm trying to catch up now.) But it is perfect, and I was so surprised and happy. The ring was cleaned and the stone put into a new setting. The ring was resized from a 7 down to a 6, too (I've lost weight in my hands, too). I cried, and we kissed, and I cried some more. Philip had some tears too, and they looked beautiful on his face.

My true love.

The curly end to the story.

I like my hair wavy, you see. Each day, I'd wrap my hair into a tight bun while the hair was still wet from the shower, and I'd wear it that way for hours. Most often, I did not "un-bun" my hair until bedtime, and then I would have the loveliest, softest waves imaginable.

Only Philip and I were really the only ones who would get to see the lovely, soft waves. And it was really the prettiest hair, but there seemed to be nothing I could do to fully recreate the look in the daytime with products and/or curling.

So I debated for a few weeks. Philip encouraged me to get a body wave, but I was really nervous about doing so. Didn't the stylist tell me just this past summer that I had the healthiest hair? I didn't want to jeopardize that. Oh, but I wanted my hair to have some waves, some curls. If nothing else, I wanted it to hold curl when I tried to style it myself.

Last week, with lots of gentle nudging from Philip, I finally went to the salon. Even as he dropped me off, I was rubbing my tummy in nervousness, and I told him I was scared. He assured me it would look great, and he was gone. I walked in, talked to a stylist, and she got right to work.

Because my hair was so long, she used the largest rods she had for the perm - she called them "boom rods." It took every one that she had to do my hair, and it added almost eight pounds onto the weight of my head. My neck was hurting so bad by the end of two hours! Finally, the rods were removed, and my new curls draped around my face.

And were they ever curly! The style is curlier than I wanted, but I know that the length and weight of my hair will drag the perm out a bit, and it will settle in a softer style. Even now, almost a week later, the curl has lost about 1/3 of the original intensity (this is a good thing!). I can now use clips and claws in my hair that my normal style is much too fine to uphold, and it's been a fun week with new styles.

Like I said, it's curlier than I would like, but I know that it won't be this curly forever. In the meantime, I've made up my mind to fully enjoy the extra-springy curls and my new look. :-)